Inside the whirlwind year of Luke Littler: Not many 17-year-olds can upgrade their parents’ two-bed semi to a mansion with a pool!

Luke Littler broke down in tears last night after almost hitting a nine-darter in his opening match at the World Championship at Alexandra Palace.

Littler produced a stunning final set against Ryan Meikle, winning the three legs by 11, 10 and 11 darts respectively. In the second of those legs he missed a nine-darter by a millimeter, sending a packed crowd in North London into delirium.

Immediately after the match he was interviewed on stage by Sky’s Abigail Davies. When she asked Littler about that final set, the 17-year-old said, “I started really slow,” before clearly becoming overcome with emotion.

It could very well have been the amazing events of the past year in the teen’s life that all came to a head – and honestly, who can blame him?

Scroll down Luke Littler’s Instagram grid from the past year and it’s the stuff of childhood dreams. Forget a teenager living their best life. It’s a whole different level.

From childhood Manchester United fans meeting Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford to being driven around Silverstone by Lando Norris and being welcomed to WWE HQ in New York by champion Cody Rhodes. And there is more.

David Beckham casually slides into his DMs, hangs out with John Cena and Max Verstappen, gets invited by James Maddison to watch Tottenham, does a 180 on the United team at Carrington and appears on The Jonathan Ross Show alongside artist Raye and actress Millie Bobby Brown.

Littler was even used by England in the Euro 2024 announcement video, starred in a cereal advert and was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list at the age of 17 alongside Jude Bellingham and Arsenal’s Alessia Russo.

And then you come to the actual darts. Since his remarkable appearance in last year’s World Cup finals as a 16-year-old, Littler has won 10 senior PDC (Professional Darts Corporation) titles and is the Premier League Darts, Grand Slam and World Series of Darts champion, from 164th place to fourth in the world rankings. Add four nine-darters to that.

A year ago, Littler had just under 4,000 followers for his first round against Christian Kist. Going into his first round match against Ryan Meikle last night, Littler had well over a million. This time last year, his total winnings in the sport reached four figures. Now the boy from Warrington is a fast millionaire and undeniably the face of the sport.

On Tuesday, Littler was named BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, coming second behind Keely Hodgkinson for the top prize.

Asked to describe his feelings, he said: ‘It shows how well I’ve done this year, not just for myself, but I’ve changed the sport of darts.’

The numbers alone tell the story. The World Cup final, which he lost to Luke Humphries in January, attracted the largest non-football audience in Sky Sports’ 35-year history, with 4.8 million people.

This year’s tournament alone saw six million ticket purchase attempts for the 90,000 seats available, while Sky achieved record viewing figures for the Premier League and World Matchplay.

“I know the number of academies that have opened in different locations, the tickets that sell out within hours at Ally Pally and the Premier League (of Darts) that sells out – it just shows how much I’ve changed,” Littler added added, in typically blunt fashion. The Junior Darts Corporation has doubled the number of academies from 55 to 111 in the past year.

One of the highlights of his stratospheric rise was when Aaron Ramsdale and Declan Rice were staying with Arsenal in the same hotel as Littler and security asked if they could have their picture taken with Littler. “Shouldn’t it be the other way around,” Littler joked.

Yet, a year later, he’s still the kid who spends his free time playing Football Manager on his Xbox and is often on Snapchat a few minutes before going on stage. “Otherwise he is a quiet boy,” says darts referee Russ Bray. “But at first glance he’s a different animal.”

There’s a scene in the Sky documentary Game of Throws, shortly before Littler announced himself on the world stage with the first-round victory, in which he walks rather shyly to his theme tune and simply utters ‘Wow’ as he looks out at the crowd.

He proceeds to destroy his opponent and near the end the crowd chants “You have school tomorrow” and Littler responds by pumping his chest.

The oche is the place where he feels most alive. For Littler, who previously only traveled across the country to play darts, 2024 has taken him everywhere from Bahrain to New York and Amsterdam, selling out venues across the UK.

Watch him play in full flow and there is an aura around him as he effortlessly makes his way around the board. Even Humphries, the world number one, admits that if Littler is on form, no one can touch him.

Littler’s hero Raymond van Barneveld said that ‘it was like a Formula 1 car against a normal car’ when he was knocked out in the fourth round last year.

Sponsors are pouring in, but deals are only being made with a handful of brands such as BoohooMan and KP Nuts. Even now, due to his age, he cannot be filmed in the presence of gambling branding while fulfilling his media duties.

Most of his TV appearances – he stars in a Christmas special of Bullseye with Freddie Flintoff on ITV tonight – are fairly reserved until he has an arrow in his hand. He and his family had previously lived in a £180,000 two-bedroom semi-detached house in Cheshire, but have since moved to a five-bed country house with an indoor pool. It speaks volumes about Littler that when he broke up with his 21-year-old Eloise Milburn, he posted a message asking his followers to stop griefing his ex.

Google revealed that Littler was the most searched for athlete in Britain this year, ahead of Bellingham and Lamine Yamal, while in the ‘general’ category he was trending higher than Keir Starmer and behind only Kate Middleton and Donald Trump.

‘My wife wasn’t a big darts fan, but she always asks, “When is that kid playing next?” says promoter Barry Hearn. That’s the effect Littler has.

Littler is a rarity in darts in that he has never been anything else or had a ‘real’ job. The next two weeks will be a failure for him unless he wins.

For the boy who first picked up a dart at 18 months, the preparation remains the same, with an hour to an hour and a half of practice a day and plenty of ‘chilling’ on his own, although this time the pressure will certainly be different.

But as former world champion Rob Cross recently admitted: ‘Luke isn’t a concern at all. He’s busy eating for breakfast.’